Various implantable medical devices are advantageously inserted within various body vessels, for example to improve blood flow through a restricted or weakened vessel. Minimally invasive techniques and instruments for placement of intraluminal medical devices have been developed to treat and repair undesirable conditions within body vessels. Various percutaneous methods of implanting medical devices within the body using intraluminal transcatheter delivery systems can be used to treat a variety of conditions. One or more intraluminal medical devices can be introduced to a point of treatment within a body vessel using a delivery catheter device passed through the vasculature communicating between a remote introductory location and the implantation site, and released from the delivery catheter device at the point of treatment within the body vessel. Intraluminal medical devices can be deployed in a body vessel at a point of treatment and the delivery device subsequently withdrawn from the vessel, while the medical device retained within the vessel to provide sustained improvement in blood flow or to increase vessel patency.
Stent grafts have proven to be effective medical devices for minimally invasive treatment of vascular occlusions such as atherosclerosis and restenosis and treatment of weakened or diseased vessels. Stent grafts include a graft member inside or outside a stent structure. The graft member reestablishes a flow lumen, the stent structure supports the graft member, reinforces the weakened vessel, and prevents occlusion or stenosis.
It is desirable that there is some secure method for fastening of the stent to the graft member. Examples of fastening of a stent to a graft member are described in commonly owned U.S. Publication No. 2004/0225348, published Nov. 11, 2004 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,939,369 filed Sep. 6, 2005 which are both incorporated by reference. In particular, the method of fastening must be compatible with compressed and expanded states of the stent graft and must allow the graft member to remain fastened to the stent as the device is moved between the compressed and expanded states. For medical devices which move or slide circumferentially, there is a need for a fastening system which allows the support frame to move circumferentially with respect to the graft member such that the graft member and stent remained fastened in and during the transition between the expanded and compressed states and during.